...is for AIDS

Reading and writing makes people in Sub-Saharan Africa five times more likely to know the basics about HIV. About the importance of contraception. About how the virus spreads. About how to stop the disease passing from mother to child. Words can protect you and your family.

UNESCO (2014)

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How our partners have helped.

Lessons for Life Foundation support children’s education in the poorest parts of Africa. The toll of AIDS leaves many children orphaned and without the means to continue in school.
Lessons for Life Foundation support children’s education in the poorest parts of Africa. The toll of AIDS leaves many children orphaned and without the means to continue in school.

Ivan’s childhood was tough, and what little security he had was stripped away when his father died from AIDS when Ivan was still a young boy.

After his father’s death, relatives moved in and illegally took some of the family’s property, leaving Ivan, his mum and siblings to live on a small piece of rough land. They had to make ends meet through subsistence farming and casual labour. But this barely sustained them.

Despite the hardships they faced, Ivan’s mother still managed to fund his high school education. However, they could never get enough money to send him onto college to pursue further education.

That’s when Lessons for Life Foundation stepped in. They were able to fund Ivan’s dream, sending him to Kyambogo University to study electrical engineering, and in 2011 he graduated with a diploma.

Lessons for Life also helped Ivan’s mother to get a pair of goats, some maize and bean seeds so the family could support themselves.

Since his graduation, Ivan has been using his new trade in a rural electrification programme. This is working to expand Uganda’s power network into the more remote counties and provide electricity to rural and outlying communities.

Ivan takes his new responsibilities very seriously, and has used some of his earnings to pay for children from his village to go to school.

He is now planning to continue his studies and further his career with a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, so he can help with the development of his country.

Ivan’s story highlights the power of how even a small intervention, such as sending one person through further education, can have a transformative effect on their life, the life of their family, the strength of their community and the progress of their nation.